i live in southern califonia, more specific, los angeles.

i got my intake and when i installed my intake i was using 91 octane and it was loud, tonight i filled up 89 octane and the car responded poorly than earlier in the night. one main thing that i could tell was that the intake was not as lound and the engine would jump up and down gears.

are these probable causes from the 89 octane? should i just to the $2.79, 91 octane gas?

thanks..

 

I use $2.45 super 93, always have. The car might take awhile to adjust to the lower octane, and eventually run properly. You shouldnt change octanes, you are supposed to choose one and stick to it.

 

Man... I love California, but those gas prices... crazy. I hope they get rid of MTBE soon (as I recall, it added a pretty good premium to the price).

Yeah, I too would still to the higher octane gas (especially if you've already been using it). But as lightonthehill has mentioned, it could take up to 2 tank fulls for the Maxima to fully adjust to a new octane level.

As a side note, gas has been falling here for some reason (even though as far as I know oil hasn't fallen much). It feel from about $2.05 to $1.94 for 87... I still pay that $0.20 premium for BP's 93 though.

 

Gas prices are indeed going down, i read it in the news.

 

Why does everyone think that the car has to "get used to" a different octane level? I know plenty of people who race and run their 93 octane out and then put 100 octane racing fuel in. The car does not have to "get used to" the new octane level. It will burn what's in the tank.

 

earlier last week my pockets were empty.. i ended up having to fill the tank half way with 87 octane.. and the car responded alot slower... pick up was horrible... i sended scraping up change in the car and went to a gas station and got STP octane booster.. and after putting it in.. it ran fine again. i got the response and pick up back

 

91 Octane here in CA all the times. My Max is running strong with Shell or Chevron gas. When I had to fill up with 76 or Mobil ('ve never tried Arco), my Max feels "slow" right away. I feel less kick in the pants.

 

Well, it was probobly his getting used to the loss of performance, i hear its around 30hp, more than anything...that made the car feel so sluggish & not as loud when accellerating.

 

The reason gasoline prices are lower is that they are tied to the price of oil on world markets. Oil prices have dropped about US$10 a barrel in the last few weeks. Where I live, there is generally a 2 or 3-week lag period where gas takes longer to track oil price changes. Look for gas prices to trend lower in May and June, before the summer driving season begins.

 

It looks like he knew it was tied to oil, but unaware of the lag. I was told once that gas stations cant change prices until they use up the gas in the tanks they already have.
This might be a good time to go short on some oil futures?

 

Too late to do that now. The easy money has already been made.

 

Yeah I know that the prices are tied to oil and that there is a lag, but I gues sI was unaware that oil had dropped $10 since gasoline prices peaked here...

And as some one else mentioned, yeah, it generally takes a couple of weeks for the prices to fall (since there is so much lead time in gasoline production), but amazingly there is NO lead time for gasoline prices to increase... criminal.

I really do think though that this last run above $2.00 has really started to hurt gasoline suppliers... I have seen far fewer people at the pump and have noticed that the stations seemed to try to hold on to $1.99 as long as possible, since it has started to hurt their business (that $2 psyhcologoical barrier you know...).

 

Oh, also, which brand do 93 do you guys think is 'the best'? I've heard that 76, Mobil, and Arco 93 octance don't seem to run as well as other's 93 (such as Shell)...generally, I try to use BP as it seems to be the best in my small town of those that sell 93.

Thanks

 

I filled my 90 with Hess 91 or 93 octane (I forget) It was like 2.35/gallon (cheapest in the city IIRC). Either way I got about 65 miles from a little under a quarter tank. I have actually kept tabs on my mileage as I mainly do highway miles and I don't drive a lot to other places I got about 17 miles/gallon on 89. So I'm guessing It'll go up by atleast a nother notch or two using premium. Hopefully I get 19 miles/gallon. This winter killed me I averaged 11 miles/gallon then I got a tune-up.